Server or external hard drive storage

abakan

Alrite all,

just a quick question,

Im looking into having an external hard drvie hooked up to my Pc, but I got a suggestion this moring regarding a server.
In the office there are 2 laptops and 1 PC,all wireless

would I be better off having a small server - maybe a terabyte server holding all the info and letting the other 2 laptops access the data?

anybody know where I could pick up a cheap enough 500GB/terebyte server?

darraghrogan

provided you get a good one - Network Attached Storage is excellent. low power, low noise - very reliable (as there is nothing expect for the hard disc itself) to go wrong...

Maplins sometimes have good deals... I got a 320gig Maxtor Shared Storage there for about €160 a few months ago - delighted with the purchase. I use it mainly for media serving to Xboxes, PS3s and then its accessed via Netowrk Neighbourhood on Windows (Standard SAMBA) to copy files to and from it...

D

axer

It all depends on your level of experience or the level of experience your IT staff. I find that an NAS is more reliable than a server due to the more simple design of them. IF it is only for backup and file sharing then I would go with the NAS but if you want the likes of off-site backups then you might need a server.

Theta

Server IMO is more cost effective than a NAS especially if your looking for a Tb one. Cheap tower server off dell 300 one or two 1tb drives off komplett 180 each. Raid 1 the Disks and you have an extra safety net. Plus it adds more control over the data. Maybe not everyone in the office should have access to the same data?

KTRIC

My Buffalo NAS is on its way out after less than a year. I'm moving over to a small server instead as its easier to upgrade and I have full control over what the disks do.

I thought the NAS was the business until it started dyeing on me, don't think I'll get another one to be honest.

kingaaa

Need a bit of help here. I'm looking to network my storage as my main pc is getting cluttered up and is always on. It will be mainly for video and music files. My system is as follows :

Main PC 500 GB running XP with a Seagate 500GB external HD via USB
Netgear 4 port "G" cable router
XPS 1710 Laptop connected wirelessly
2nd PC running XP connected via ethernet
JVC DD3 Netwrok Media dvd player connected via ethernet
Pinnacle Showcenter connected via ethernet

I plan on connecting 2 more showcenter's via ethernet (tried the first one wireless, a bit hit and miss) so this is going to leave me needing 7 ports in total if I get a NAS storage unit so I'm going to need either a router with more ports or one of Netgears add-onn ethernet (8 port) units. Am I going about this the right way or just complicating things? I like the fact that the pc does'nt need to be on to access the files on the NAS so any advice on NAS units would be much appreciated. Having said that, I know nothing about servers - these are the mini pc's, right? How do they work?

Stky10

Cheap option: Get a cheap desktop from Dell with no operating system, but two identically sized disks. Install a version of Linux, and mirror the disks.

More expensive option: Get a low grade Poweredge server from Dell, and use hardware RAID over multiple controllers and multiple disks.

If its for personal use, maybe use the cheap option but recognise the risks involved. If its for an office definetly use more secure and safe options including some sort of off site backup (eg tape, removable disk, on-line backup). You don't want to be the backup person the morning after a lightning strike knocks out your server looking at sending the disks off to specialist data recovery company

kingaaa

Stky10 wrote: »

Cheap option: Get a cheap desktop from Dell with no operating system, but two identically sized disks. Install a version of Linux, and mirror the disks.

More expensive option: Get a low grade Poweredge server from Dell, and use hardware RAID over multiple controllers and multiple disks.

If its for personal use, maybe use the cheap option but recognise the risks involved. If its for an office definetly use more secure and safe options including some sort of off site backup (eg tape, removable disk, on-line backup). You don't want to be the backup person the morning after a lightning strike knocks out your server looking at sending the disks off to specialist data recovery company

WOW, I understood about 2 words of that!! Stky, I'm new to this networking thing but it is for home use, mainly for AV files to be accessed throughout the house.

Stky10

kingaaa wrote: »

WOW, I understood about 2 words of that!! Stky, I'm new to this networking thing but it is for home use, mainly for AV files to be accessed throughout the house.

Well if you prefer, you can perform disk mirroring in Windows pretty easily as well through Computer Management > Disk Management in Control Panel. This basically means that you have two disks of the same size in the machine, and they are the exact same mirror image on both, so anytime a file is changed, the change is made on both disks, so a single disk failing means no data is lost, which is good because the average disk in a desktop machine has an average lifespan of 3-5 years.

If you havent experience in this area, it might be the best/easiest way of providing some sort of backup.

kingaaa

Stky10 wrote: »

Well if you prefer, you can perform disk mirroring in Windows pretty easily as well through Computer Management > Disk Management in Control Panel. This basically means that you have two disks of the same size in the machine, and they are the exact same mirror image on both, so anytime a file is changed, the change is made on both disks, so a single disk failing means no data is lost, which is good because the average disk in a desktop machine has an average lifespan of 3-5 years.

If you havent experience in this area, it might be the best/easiest way of providing some sort of backup.

Stky, I dont want a network storage unit for backing files up, more so for sharing avi/mp3 files around the house to several different devices on the network.

ZENER

Time Capsule ftw.

ZEN

LeperKing

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=979&l1=12&l2=43&l3=0

kingaaa

the apple one looks interesting, wonder how it would work with a netgear router?